A Computer-Based Parent/Adolescent HIV Communication Intervention for Latinos

Latino adolescents are at high risk for contracting HIV/AIDS. Few individual and even fewer parent interventions have been developed to address this persistent problem. Parent communication interventions provide an opportunity to enhance individual adolescent based approaches. However, there is a need for theory and culture based interventions focused on Latino parents. The program implemented in this study was designed for parents, to indirectly help reduce the health risks of their adolescents, including unintended pregnancy and STDs, including HIV/AIDS. The study has three aims regarding the examination of whether the computer based parental communication intervention is 1) associated with a greater increase in parents' comfort with, and quantity of communication; 2) associated with a greater increase in adolescents' intentions to abstain from sex and/or avoid unprotected intercourse and decreased self-reported intercourse and unprotected intercourse; and 3) feasible and acceptable to Spanish dominant Latino parents and their adolescent children.